[h3]Freagon, Yanin, Jaelnec and Jordan – Outside the Fadewatcher station, Borstown[/h3]
“Fifteen years,” Jaelnec said with a nod of his head when Jordan asked, confirming the duration of his pagehood; an excessively long time by most standards, though he obviously would not know if things were different for others in the Knighthood of the Will specifically, of course. The only other person he knew who had ever been a Page of the Will was Freagon himself, and according to the stories he had heard, Freagon had been a page for five years... only to practically skip the rank of squire by undergoing his Test and becoming a knight as soon as he was made one.
Upon Yanin commenting about the bestowal of titles being a public affair, Freagon shrugged. “People already think I'm lying about being a knight. What difference would it make to have more witnesses to a fake knight naming his fake squire?”
When Jordan turned the subject to his past and his origins, Jaelnec's smile faltered somewhat, though he bravely kept trying to hold on to the happiness from before.
“I suppose I was more privileged in a lot of ways, but similar,” he told him, a shadow settling over him as his mirth kept seeming to drain moment by moment as his thoughts turned to the past. “My Mom was a priestess of Laon and my Dad was a wizard, so I did a lot more studying than work when I was a child. Still, we lived in a small village – one with pretty much just nightwalkers – so I worked like you did, too.”
He turned his head to look at his master, though he did not do so obviously and in an effort to redirect of anyone anywhere else, but just because he felt prompted to look at him. “Sir Freagon found me when I was ten. He saved me. I had been out in the woods collecting mushrooms and returned to find the village in flames. It was the Crusader's Guild. They killed everyone. Then Sir Freagon showed up.”
Turning back to Jordan, Jaelnec repeated: “He saved me, and took me with him away from there. I've been with him ever since. I owe him my life.”

As Yanin pointed out that this was not the first time Freagon – and by extention Jaelnec – had worked with others and asked what had changed, there was a slight, barely noticeable hesitation before Freagon replied.
“Time is running out,” he said simply, leaving what that meant up to interpretation.